UN Expert Urges UK To Respond to Violence Against Women

Un Rights Expert Urges United Kingdom To Step Up Response To
Violence Against Women

New York, Apr 16 2014
12:00PM

Violence against women remains a pervasive
challenge in the United Kingdom and a more comprehensive and
targeted response is needed to address the scourge, an
independent United Nations human rights expert said today
after a two-week mission to the country.

Special
Rapporteur Rashida Manjoo
noted
that the UK has made the issue of violence against women a
priority and there have been “many positive
developments,” including a 2010 strategy to address the
problem.

“But a more comprehensive and targeted response
to address acts of violence against women and girls is
needed,” stated Ms. Manjoo, who has been charged by the UN
Human Rights Council to monitor, report and advise on
violence against women, its causes and consequences.

In a
news release issued at the end of her 16-day mission to the
UK, the expert pointed out that in the course of last year,
7 per cent of women in England and Wales reported having
experienced any type of domestic abuse – equivalent to 1.2
million female victims. It is also estimated that 2.5 per
cent of women reported having experienced any type of sexual
assaults – equivalent to an estimated 400,000 female
victims.

Other manifestations of violence which were
reported throughout her visit included sexual harassment,
gender-based bullying, forced and/or early marriages, female
genital mutilation, gang-related violence, so called honour-
related violence, and trafficking.

Women’s organizations
in the UK informed the Special Rapporteur that black and
minority ethnic and migrant women experience a
disproportionate rate of domestic homicide, and that women
of Asian origin are up to three times more likely to commit
suicide than other women as a result of violence.

Ms.
Manjoo noted that the current austerity measures are having
a disproportionate impact, not only in the specific
provision of violence against women services, but more
generally, on other cross-cutting areas affecting women,
such as poverty and unemployment, which are contributory
factors to violence against women and girls.

“It is
important to recognize that the reduction in the number and
quality of specialized services for women does impact health
and safety needs of women and children, and further
restricts them when considering leaving an abusive home,
thus putting them at a heightened risk of
re-victimization,” she stressed.

Ms. Manjoo noted that,
in order to address shortcomings in responses, the British
authorities have piloted and completed the evaluation of a
series of initiatives, including Domestic Violence
Protection Orders, which enable the police and magistrates
to exclude a perpetrator from the home for up to 28
days.

She also noted that, since March 2013, the
non-statutory definition of domestic abuse in the UK,
previously restricted to “adults,” includes victims aged
16 and 17, as well as the concepts of controlling and
coercive behaviour.

The findings of the mission, which
included London, Leicester, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Belfast,
Cookstown, Cardiff and Bristol, will be discussed in the
report to be presented to the Human Rights Council in June
2015.

Independent experts or special rapporteurs are
appointed by the Geneva-based Council to examine and report
back on a country situation or a specific human rights
theme. The positions are honorary and the experts are not UN
staff, nor are they paid for their
work.

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